“The universe is indeed an enchantment placed upon us by the World-Mind. We are all enclosed within the scene set up by it but the scene itself is a thought-created one, the power which makes us feel its reality is a mental one and even the senses so bewitched are forms of consciousness. Hence the operation of the cosmic upon the individual mind is nothing short of magic!” -Paul Brunton

We are living in a mental universe. Everything we see and experience in the world, as well as everything that passes through our awareness – is mental. It is an idea. It is a thought. Generated either by the World-Mind, (or whatever name you choose to call it – the Absolute, the Cosmic Mind, the Supreme Creator – God) or by your own Mind.

Quantum physicists have been telling us for some time now that the world we see as solid matter is far from solid; rather it is a moving sea of energy. And what is this energy? It seems they don’t quite know the answer to that. The hidden teachings tell us that energy will be found to be an ‘attribute of mind’…something possessed by Mind. That is Mind with a capital – the World-Mind.

We were created in the image of the Absolute, or more accurately, we issued forth from this World-Mind and thus we too possess a spark of the attribute of mind and this alone is responsible for our consciousness, and indeed for the life force within us itself. It has been well established, as many of us are aware, that we create the world we see and experience through our consciousness. That is, the world becomes real to us when we pay attention to it. Subatomic particles are brought into manifestation, made ‘real’ by the powers of our observation. They are moulded into forms by our space-time consciousness – itself purely mental , a construct of Mind, to provide us with the experience of living in this reality system. Through our consciousness we register energetic vibrations as sensations and they are transformed into the sticks and stones that make up our world. Mind, through our consciousness and our brains, is the transformer.

Mind is behind the consciousness that takes us out of the external world and into the inner realm of our sleep and dreams. Here, the hidden teachings tell us, we are given a clue into the nature of reality and if we are sufficiently insightful, that of the World-Mind. Consciousness takes on three different modes: full consciousness, or wakefulness, semi-consciousness or the dream state and unconsciousness or deep sleep. Wakefulness we know, is where we direct our most intense attention, and therefore the ‘world’ we experiences as the most real. The dream world belongs in the semi-consciousness stage. Here, our consciousness is busy creating images, mental pictures and felt experiences – which we, the dreamer, the ‘I’, who is behind all stages of consciousness, take to be utterly ‘real’. It is only when we wake, do we realize that the dramas and adventures, the emotions we felt while we dreamt, were illusory. But they felt real at the time. Just as we feel this experience we are having in the real world is real. Both the dream world and the world we see and experience outside ourselves are products of our own ideation. The reality behind both is relative.

We are not saying here that the world we see is illusory, that it does not, as the mystics tell us, really exist. It is not an illusion. The world is real. It is real because everything in it is part of the same realessence. Spirit and matter are one and the same. Ultimately, there is no duality, there is only one single stuff. And it is the Mind. The teaching of the world being illusory was given to those at a certain stage on the spiritual path and its purpose was to disentangle these seekers from their obsession with the material world and take them inwards to the unseen reality. It is very difficult for us all to disentangle ourselves from the material world because this is where our sensory apparatus is set up for us to focus our strongest attention. There is a very definite purpose to this – which we cannot go into here.

When we fall into deep sleep, (or we are under the influence of anaesthetic) we are completely unaware, we are unconscious. Yet, Mind is still there. And it is Mind that brings us back when we awaken. We are still who we are, the ‘self’ we believe we are, returns intact. We remember who we are, what we did the day before and what we have to do today. Where has it been, the mysterious ‘self’, the ‘I’ consciousness, that lies behind the egoic personality? It has been resting in the Void. It has withdrawn into the World-Mind – from which it sprung.

The Absolute Mind likewise withdraws into the Void. Between its outward, generative phases of expression, where universes are created, it too withdraws into itself. The in-breath and out-breath of God – as it has been called. Cosmic Mind and its agent in us, the higher self, or the real self – you might call it the soul, are knitted together in unseen union through this mysterious power of consciousness. We are all part of the same One Mind and it is only a story of relativity that has us label some of our experiences ‘real’ and others as ‘illusion.’ There is an underlying, unbroken reality behind the world we see and the world we do not see. It is a unifying force and it is the essence present in us and in all of nature. We are at heart unified by a force whose power is pure love.

We must realize, all the chaos, the terror and fear, the manipulation of our thoughts, the poisoning of our bodies, the sadness, pain, anxiety and insecurity we know in the world today – is not the final reality. All evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. And by the universal law of karma, evil-doers in the world today will suffer themselves the pain they have inflicted on others. Heaven and hell are self-created spheres of consciousness. The unifying force of love makes null and void all evil – it is love that is our true essence.

Ultimately we are infinite, beginningless and endless and united in the loving compassionate embrace of our creator. Our consciousness will be withdrawn from this experience at the end of these brief lives in the flesh – but that moment will be our entry to a different reality and new experiences. There is nothing to fear. We have nothing to lose that we cannot create again. Everyone we have loved and lost, we can reunite with. Every mistake we have made, we can make up for. Every fragment of love we have given will be given again to us. We will return here to balance the karmic ledger and here we will again be given the opportunity to know the love of and for the Great Mind – of which we are the offspring. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make that most of that opportunity this time around?

So then let us feel the love in our own hearts – the focal point within the physical body for the real self – and feel that love reaching beyond the cage of our hearts, beyond the range of our small self-interest and share it around. It is Christmas after all. Love and Goodwill to you and yours…